Nancy Carol Walker Davenport, 66, and Pete Davenport, 71, are the youngsters in the group. In fact, they just hit their 50th anniversary last month. They have two children.
Born in Maine, not far from the Canadian border, Pete is the only one of the 12 to be born outside of Rowan County.
So how did he meet a Rockwell girl? He met Nancy’s brother, Clyde Walker, off the coast of Cape Hatteras when they were in the Navy together. The sea was so rough they took turns heaving in the latrine, Clyde says.
They became friends and Clyde brought Pete home to Rockwell, where he met Clyde’s sister, Nancy, who was only 13 at the time. They began dating in 1957 and went to South Carolina to get married in January 1958. She was 16; he was 21. She remembers taking a letter from her mother giving her permission to be married. Because of Pete’s Navy commitment, they spent only 11 days together their first year of marriage.
Nancy says that the secret to their happy marriage is loving each other, loving God, and “a lot of give and take.”
“We’ve had our share of ups and downs but we have always come out on top,” Pete says.